Following the appalling incidents in Ashton last Sunday the police are taking the following action:
1. Four arrests have been made for the incident on Sunday night
2. Other individuals already identified by the police are to be visited by them this week. The police will consider other possible sanctions against those involved and their families e.g. in the case of council tenants imposing sanctions on them or more likely the parents.
3. The police are allocating staff to work in and around the Jubilee Park early in the evening to prevent such numbers escalating and taking a hold during the hours of darkness.
4. The police will be maintaining a presence each night to Monday 4th November and review the situation through the Bonfire night week.
5. The police have arranged for additional resources such as their Special Constables to work with them in the next two weeks in light of the difficulties in covering the park.
6. Police Community Support Officers are working with the local schools to provide inputs on the implications of being present in the park.
7. The police will be going house to house in the locality speaking to residents
8. The police have met Youth Services and are linking in with them to ensure a co-ordinated approach.
9. Media messages are being put out on twitter/face book
10. The police are considering the introduction of Section 30 Dispersal Orders.
This has been a very bad few months in Ashton for anti social behaviour. As a local Councillor I have been asking for extra policing and joint working with agencies in Wigan Council, a strategy which was successful earlier in the summer when residents of Ashton Heath were subjected to similar unacceptable incidents of anti social behaviour.
I hope that whoever threw fireworks at the crew who went to deal with the fire in question are prosecuted.I also agree with Borough Commander Sheridan when he says that parents have a responsuibility to know what their children are doing in the evening.
I am asking for a meeting with the local MP, representatives of Wigan council and the police to find some long term solution to this problem.
